The labyrinth is one of mankind's oldest artistic creations. Images drawn, carved or scratched by human hand that does not copy something seen in nature. Maybe the first to be inspired by the human imagination!
(from 'The Unending Mystery' by David Willis McGullough.)
Labyrinths and Mazes are the work of humans but spirals are seen in nature alone.
A labyrinth is a spiral broken at four points but still a single continuous path.
A maze is a puzzle of confusing paths with dead ends and high walls. Not so with labyrinths. You can always see where you are going and can keep the center in sight.
According to Frank Waters in 'The Book of the Hopi' tribal elders understood what labyrinth designs - there are two - signified for the origins of their tribe.
The common name for both the square and the round labyrinths is, 'tapu'at' or "Mother and Child".
In Hopi mythology, both the tribes emerge from Mother Earth into the world at the beginning of time. The square labyrinth is more literal, being in fact two separate labyrinths, one within the other, and can be seen as both the child within the womb and a child held - and protected - in a mother's arm. And the straight line, unattached to either labyrinth, denotes the passage out, maybe even the umbilical cord.
The round labyrinth is more cosmic than the square. It symbolizes the Son, Father, "the giver of life". It has turns at four points that change direction but keep you moving forward until reaching the center.
The labyrinth reveals the Creator's universal plan. There seems to be no tradition of walking the labyrinth, but every year at 'Wuwuchim', the first in the annual cycle of ceremonies, the Hopi priests walk around the pueblo 4 times to reclaim the Earth according to the Universal Plan revealed in the labyrinth.
The ear-rings I have made are round and I am now working on the square. Photos will reveal.
